Trading Holidays in India 2026

Full list of NSE and BSE trading holidays in 2026

Below is the complete, official list of weekday trading holidays for 2026. On these dates the equity segment, F&O, currency derivatives and SLB schemes of both NSE and BSE remain closed for the entire day. The Muhurat Trading row at the bottom is the one symbolic exception — a one-hour session on a Sunday evening.

If you are tracking the market through the year, the rhythm is clear: a quieter January, a packed March–April stretch with five holidays in six weeks, then a long gap through summer, and a heavy festive season from September to December. The October–November stretch alone has four equity holidays plus the special Muhurat session — that's effectively a month of disrupted trading.

Muhurat Trading 2026: the one-hour Diwali session

Of all the dates on the calendar, the one most traders look forward to is not a holiday at all — it is the Diwali Muhurat Trading session. It is a symbolic one-hour window on the evening of Diwali Laxmi Pujan, considered the most auspicious time of the year to begin new financial activity in Hindu tradition.

A small note worth highlighting: the Muhurat session is the only time NSE and BSE conduct trading on a Sunday. Outside of this, every other Sunday — and every Saturday — is closed throughout the year. The session also opens the new Samvat year, which is how Indian traders informally label "the trading year" (Samvat 2083 begins on this date and will run until next Diwali).

Seven long weekends for traders in 2026

When a holiday falls on a Friday or a Monday, it combines with the regular Saturday and Sunday off to create a three-day break. For active traders, these stretches matter — they are perfect for catching up on journaling, planning the next month, or simply stepping away from screens without missing market days.

2026 has seven such long weekends. Mark these on your personal calendar:

Settlement holidays: 4 dates that catch beginners off guard

This is where most beginners get confused. A settlement holiday is not a trading holiday. On these days, you can place buy and sell orders just like any other working day. What is paused is the back-end settlement — the actual transfer of money from your bank to the seller's, and the actual transfer of shares from the seller's demat to yours. That settlement happens on the next working day instead.

India's stock market currently follows the T+1 settlement cycle, which means a trade executed today (T) settles on the next working day (T+1). When a settlement holiday falls in between, your shares or your funds simply arrive one working day later than usual. For 2026, the four settlement holidays are:

• Thursday, 19 February 2026 — Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti
• Thursday, 19 March 2026 — Gudhi Padwa (Marathi new year)
• Wednesday, 1 April 2026 — Annual Bank Closing (banks are shut for year-end accounting)
• Wednesday, 26 August 2026 — Id-E-Milad (Prophet's birthday)

The annual bank closing on 1 April deserves its own line — because every year a wave of new traders panics when their morning sell ends up with the credit not landing in the bank that evening. The exchange and your demat are fine; the bank's books are simply not moving that day. Your money will arrive on 2 April.

Holidays that fell on weekends in 2026

Four major Indian festivals fall on a Saturday or Sunday in 2026, which means traders effectively "lose" them — the exchange would have been closed on those days anyway. You will not get a separate weekday off in lieu. These are:

• Sunday, 15 February 2026 — Maha Shivaratri
• Saturday, 21 March 2026 — Eid-Ul-Fitr (Ramzan Eid)
• Saturday, 15 August 2026 — Independence Day
• Sunday, 8 November 2026 — Diwali Laxmi Pujan (Muhurat session held in the evening)

Independence Day falling on a Saturday is the one that hurts most years — it would normally have given traders a long weekend. In 2026, it is simply absorbed into the regular weekend.

How trading holidays actually affect your money

A trading holiday is not just a day to take it easy. It silently changes four important things about how the market operates around it. If you trade actively — especially derivatives — these matter.

The expiry-shift rule is the one that catches traders most often. The classic example: if a Tuesday is a holiday and you are holding a weekly option, your contract will already have expired on the previous Monday. Many beginners log in on Tuesday assuming they still have time — and find the position settled, often at zero, the previous evening.

Indian stock market trading hours (non-holidays)

On any non-holiday weekday — Monday through Friday — the Indian equity market follows a fixed three-phase schedule. For F&O and currency derivatives, the regular session timings differ slightly, but for cash equity these are the windows to know:

If you are an absolute beginner, the only number you really need to remember is 9:15 AM to 3:30 PM, Monday to Friday. That is the main trading window. The pre-open is mostly for institutional order matching, and the post-close session is rarely used by retail traders.

What about commodity markets? MCX in 2026

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) — where gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas and base metals are traded — runs a different calendar. Unlike NSE and BSE, MCX has two sessions per day: a morning session (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM) and an evening session (5:00 PM – 11:30 PM / 11:55 PM, aligned with global commodity markets in London and New York).

On a holiday, one of three things happens — and beginners often miss the distinction:

MCX is fully closed (both sessions) on only six dates in 2026:

1. Monday, 26 January 2026 — Republic Day
2. Friday, 3 April 2026 — Good Friday
3. Saturday, 15 August 2026 — Independence Day
4. Friday, 2 October 2026 — Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti
5. Sunday, 8 November 2026 — Diwali Laxmi Pujan (Muhurat trading in evening)
6. Friday, 25 December 2026 — Christmas

If you trade only equity and derivatives, you can safely ignore this section. But if you also trade gold or crude oil, the evening session is open on most days NSE is shut — including festival days like Holi, Ram Navami, Dussehra and the November Diwali week. Always check the latest MCX circular before planning trades around these dates.

Frequently asked questions